As the location of the 18th World Congress of Food Science and Technology 2016 (IUFoST), Dublin ticked all the boxes for the organisers —easily accessible for a global audience, compact and easy to navigate, known for its welcoming people, and rich in culture and history.

To bring the event to Dublin, Conference Partners International liaised with Meet in Ireland and the local organising committee; by sharing objectives, and aiming for quality, creativity and innovation, their submission became the winning bid for this large science and technology event.

The five-day conference took place in Dublin’s RDS, and consisted of speaker events, poster displays, oral presentations and a large exhibition area. One main plenary room and nine breakout rooms were used to accommodate numerous speaker sessions and oral presentations. Over the course of the conference, there were 273 oral presentations made, and 1,114 posters were displayed — numbers that provide some sense of the scale of the event.

The Global Food Summit took place in Dublin on 21st August, on the day of the launch of IUFoST; several well-known industry figures were present, including Gerry Boyle, Managing Director of Teagasc; Aidan Cotter, Chief Executive of Bórd Bia; and Michael Creed, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland, who presented a keynote address.

Feedback from attendees and academics was universally positive. “The scientific program was excellent in its technical content, as were the invited keynote speakers. Many of the sessions I attended involved thoughtful audience engagement, while attention to detail by the staff resulted in minimal distractions. The staff at the registration desk handled requests quickly, with a smile — overall, it was one of the best IUFoST congresses that I have attended,” noted R. Paul Singh, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Food Engineering Member and National Academy of Engineering Editor-in-Chief.